Legal battle over library closures

Papers have been sent to Lincolnshire County Council setting out details of a request for a Judicial Review over library closures.

The claim has been filed in the High Court, London and the review is asking for the court to issue an order quashing the council’s decision to drastically reduce its library provisions across the county - a decision which was made in December.

According to the Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign group the legal papers set out a number of grounds for the request.

The first is that the consultation preceding the decision was unlawful as SLL believe the decision had been already taken before the consultation.

The second reason presented by SLL is that the ‘council failed to take due regard of its obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty as required by the Equality Act 2010.

‘The council had already identified that disabled people, older people, young people and women (particularly mothers of young children), were going to be hit by their plans but failed to ensure that the harm this was going to cause was prevented.’

It is also claimed that the council failed to properly consider Greenwich Leisure’s proposal to take over the library service.

The fourth ground is that the library service will no longer be comprehensive and efficient.

Councillor Nick Worth, Executive Member for Libraries, said: “We’ve only recently received the details of the claim, and are now beginning to consider our response.

“Before the decision was made, the council carried out extensive consultation and thoroughly considered the impact on our residents.

“So we’ll be presenting the strongest possible defence, showing that all the necessary steps needed to make a lawful decision were taken.”